One of the most influential political films in history, vividly recreates Algeria’s tumultuous struggle for independence from its French occupiers in the 1950s. Filmed on the streets of Algiers in documentary style, the film is a study in modern warfare, with its terrorist attacks and the brutal techniques used to combat them. This tour de force by Pontecorvo had Sarah Maldoror as assistant director.
- Golden Lion and FIPRESCI, Venice Film Festival, 1966
- Winner of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, 1967
The Italian director (Pisa, 1919-Rome, 2006) would bring neorealist aesthetics and ethics to the political turmoil that shook the European order in the aftermath of the Second World War and its most pressing failures, from colonialism to covert dictatorships, during the 1960s and 1970s. Some of his most notable films include The Battle of Algiers (1966), about the Algerian decolonization movement, and Operation Ogre (1979), about the attack on Carrero Blanco in Spain and the beginning of the end of the Franco regime.